KFDs post prompted this. They can be from The Afterword or The Word blog , current or inactive.
I’ll start.7.
How many of the Massive have you met?
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
4 I can think of, off the top of my head. Two I’ve been soundman at their gigs and/or recording sessions.
I’ve been at gigs where there were other AWers in the same audience.
Happy ninth anniversary @fentonsteve!
https://skirky.blogspot.com/2015/11/i-left-my-heart-in-papworth-general.html
Crikey! How time flies.
Rocky’s is going to be knocked down (at last) and replaced by something rather more upmarket.
Just 4, I think. Though @hubert-rawlinson is the only active current member. I worked with Prestonia many years before The Word was first published, met Hannah once at a gig and I run into Dave the Dog Faced Boy at shows in London quite frequently (we have similar tastes, though he goes to a lot more shows than I do).
None: zilch, zero, etc…
…although I have met el hombre malo – but it was some years prior to the publication of Word magazine…
A lot. A good many at mingles, more than one or two have called to see me at my bijou council penthouse flat, some still do from time to time. Hiya Tigg. A couple have even slept on my living room floor in the dim and distant. I’ve met up with many in various combinations for boozy afternoon shenanigans and others for one to one boozy afternoon or evening shenanigans.
I’ve loved meeting every single one of them/you and I would like to think many have become friends at least for my part that is how I regard them/you. I sincerely hope this state of jollity continues.
This is the right sort of answer.
“Some” would also suffice, lest it all seem a bit competitive, which would be daft. I neither have or need many friends, but I consider the few I have met thru’ this place to be as good as any acquired elsewhere.
The lack of boozy shenanigan must be remedied next year, too, the company sorely missed. Let’s hope Santa brings you a new hip for Xmas, Mr P.
Agreed.
So kind. Diolch. I was told I’d have to wait at least eighteen months when I saw the orthopedic carpenter back in April. So maybe not this Christmas but hopefully I shall be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound by Christmas 2025.
I don’t know many I’ve met but Pencil was present every time, except once with dai.
Lovely memories of many massive mingles
Miss your tales from the Oscar ceremony and party afterwards.
The mingles led me to Glossop Record Club and Charity Shop Classics on AllFM via Gavin Hogg.
None for me either but I did realise due to his subsequent post that I was at the same Josh Rouse concert at the Stables as Niallb years ago. Memorable because the venue was playing a Carole King compilation when he and the band came into the restaurant and he started singing his song ‘1972’ which includes the lyric’ Groovin’ to a Carole King tune’. Josh Rouse that is, not Niall.
Also memorable because we stayed over at a nearby hotel and between checking in and heading off to the venue someone keyed the car from end to the other.
Pencil, Cheshire and Retro last year in Chester (though I’ve met them individually before) Gatz as reported at the Union Chapel. September I met Mike H at the Joe Boyd talk I know another Afterworder was there but alas I can’t remember who, I’ve tried to check. Others I have seen have been at the same gigs but didn’t meet them.
Always a pleasure to meet them
Oh and Judy Dyble too.
And it will be pleasure again on the next occasion – roll on.
Also met Beany and other former bloggers before a Schizoid Band gig at Salford Quays many years ago. Jorrox hosted a number under his gazebo at Cambridge one year.
Two or three others whom I knew long before Word.
I’m annoyed I missed you last month in Tod however after my spinal jab a couple of weeks ago I’m feeling much better. Roll on next year.
Oh, and @Vince-Black heard my second ever foray into unaccompanied singing at Bury Met many years ago, though neither of us realised we were in each other’s company at the time.
I was at the Eno & Boyd talk with my dog – especially enjoyed Brian shouting at the hapless Foyles employee to whack up the sound louder.
I knew I’d seen someone mention they were there too, but I couldn’t recall which post it was on. It would have been good to meet up. Yes he definitely wanted more boost to the sound.
Zero – there’s an open invitation to drop in for a cuppa (or wine if you are lucky), if you are ‘in the area’, but given that area is 7000 miles from most of you, no one has taken me up on it yet.
I’ve had an invite from Gary to visit him which I may take up.
A business suggestion for you, @Gary. Open an up-market Sardinian b-n-b /bistro with an in-house stereo that plays Pink Floyd 24/7. You can call it Il Lato Oscuro della Luna.
You’ll be fully booked all year round once Afterworders start flying down to enjoy that Italian sunshine.
My business idea for you @Junior is to open a Snake and Spider Outback Safari Park/ Bob Dylan Desert Experience. No one I know has done so such to spread awareness of the venomous beasties of Australia and the Nobel Laureate from Hibbing.
A brothel. That’s what you’re really suggesting, isn’t it? That I open a brothel.
Huh!! What sort of crzed. immoral reprobate do you take me for, Gary?
I was thinking of a cosy retreat for sun-starved wrinklies. More Bingo and board-games than bordello!
There were a couple of Midlands mingles in the distant past; I recall Steve T and the chap who inherited my NME C81 cassette. There were others – apologies for forgetting names. I am sure there have been times when we have been in the same place – the Nick Cave concert at the NEC the other day was a natural habitat – but without a social media indication (a non-saucy GRNDR, perchance?), unless someone says, how would one know? I’d be happy to meet folk – but not for sauciness, you understand. If any will be at the Henge concert this weekend at The Crawfurd, Milton Keynes (rock n roll capital of the earth), I’ll be the “Uncle Monty” lookalike in the Henry Cow t-shirt.
That app would be ideal for GRNDRman gigs..
I remember @mike_h made a point of attending as many mingles as he could, he attending the one midlands one I got to. A Chinese resto in Lichfield, I think. @stevet was there and may remember better.
I was at one of these, but no recall of MH – shamefully, but maybe as I was at the wrong one!
@Vincent you was at the wrong one. Met @mike-h a few times but the one in Lichfield we went back to @retropath2’s bijou house and there was a lady who I had met at a concert at the Glee club in Birmingham who was briefly a member but can’t for life of me remember her name.
@Vincent the one you were at was at a curry house in Birmingham and El Toro was with us (he hasn’t frequented this place for years).
In answer to the post I would say I have met many people on here – 20 plus and regard many of them as friends which is a bonus from the defunct magazine.
I am sure I had a Chinese with the mingle in Lichfield once, also. I do know another time I turned up to the same Chinese a week early, such was my enthusiasm. Th following week I was indisposed.
That’s a bad case of food poisoning.
I was once at a micro-mingle with Colin H in Newcastle and there was someone else there, whose name I never caught. I always wondered who that was. Could that have been @mike_h?
Other than that, barely anyone, although I did accompany the late James Blast to see Hall and Oates on one memorable occasion. And I suspect that @el-hombre-malo and I share a mutual friend so I may well have been in the same room as him once or twice without knowing.
I’m not sure there even are any other members from the North East now that FauxGeordie has moved on to pastures new. Anyone else out there?
I do come up to Newcastle occasionally, still have friends there. I want to see Fenwicks window this year as it’s designed by Chris Riddell.
I’ve not seen it yet but the pictures I’ve seen look fabulous. Does anyone else do Christmas windows in the same way that Fenwick’s does?
My wife who saw it last week, she lived in Newcastle for years said it’s the best she’s seen in years. I always enjoyed the Gulliver’s Travels one in the eighties.
Not sure if other windows use animatronics in the same way as Fenwicks.
May head up the week of the 9th.
Henry Cow? That’s a brilliant idea @Vincent.
And you will know us by the trail of T shirts….
Which T shirt can you wear at a gig that is a dead giveaway that you are an AW blogger?
Hmm.. Rammstein? Melt Banana? Yo Gabba Gabba? Hildegard of Blingen?
No, I always go for an old classic. Acker Bilk.
That screams “I’m an Afterword blogger and I LOVE jazz.”
I DO have this shirt, and it has been worn at Gryphon and Hawkwind gigs, and seen on the streets of Bilbao, Budapest, Stockholm, Madrid, and Gibraltar. I get many a friendly nod by fellow HC fans also whistling “Nirvana for Mice” or “Bittern Storm over Ulm” as they mend their merry way.
I wore this one year to Cropredy as I was fed up seeing Jethro Tull and Marillion t-shirts there.
Don’t think it would pass muster as an Afterword t-shirt though.
No Ken?
Met up with @retropath2 at this year’s Sidmouth FF and it was great fun. I did meet a former member in 2017 at Cropredy, but I don’t recall the nom de AW..!
Too many… er, to mention. I miss every one of them.
A few, see other thread..
None in my personal life and I hope none in my professional life.
I daresay my paths have crossed with a number of Afterworders at gigs, in Dublin or probably in my London days, like my wife and I before we met.
Fopp is still clinging on at Earlham Street in London. It’s precisely the place any AW’er would be drawn to if in the Capital.
At least a few of us have very likely been in the presence of each other there without knowing it.
I was in there in September but alas there was nothing I wanted to buy.
Hey, I was there in September. Were you the guy in the fez who bought nowt?
One jests. But, yeah I get in there as often as I can. ‘Can’ curtailed by my naughty L4 disk I’ve bored you with elsewhere.
I had a nerve blocker in my L4 earlier this month and there’s still the occasional twinge but it’s so much better.
Alas I’d left my travel fez at home as @Mike_H can confirm.
Fezless, he was. So disappointing.
Apologies
Just to say I’m heading down next week to the Neil Innes tribute concert next Thursday if anyone else is going.
I’m not trying to make it into a competition but seeing a name up there reminds me I’ve met him which then reminded me of another.
Well none directly, but I’m sure there were loads of you at the Lexington gigs sponsored by Ellen & Hepworth, so… hi!
I keep wondering if I’ll bump into Gatz, whenever I’m in Chelmsford – which is about 3 times a year, so unlikely.
I moved to Colchester a couple of weeks ago! So still not far from Witham.
I see from your posts that the Arts Centre still has as impressive a roll call of concerts as when I lived in Witham in the 90s. And there’s still the Red Lion bookshop. But what used to be a quirky and interesting town seemed a bit rundown and shabby the last couple of times we visited. While Chelmsford, with Foyles, Waterstones, Oxfam Books and Wilkin’s cafe now just has more appeal.
Sad to say this, as Colchester has a warmer place in my memory, also for H.Gunton the deli – which was a bit of a walk from the centre, but always with a visit to satisfy my foodie needs!
I hope you are settling in there nicely!
Quirky and interesting is just what we wanted, albeit with a little grit in the oyster. I’d lived in Chelmsford for 27 years and The Light for all her adult life, and harmless though it is we found it so bland after all that time. There is just so much more to do here.
I’ll have to post an ATM (ATG) Colchester in time for our Christmas visit this year.
The Thames Valley Massive was a “thing” for a while (now restricted to Christmas Curry in past couple of years).
(dogfacedboy did the initial herding cats, and does still put the flag up come December)
I can say that I’ve probably exchanged “real” words with about 10 or 12 (past and present) which form that chapter
Me and @uncle-wheaty have more then likely met but don’t know each other.
Does a couple of glimpses of Mousey on the TV count?
I can’t speak for the others in the Antipodean contingent, but I’ve always felt my geographical far-flungedness (along with the time delay) lends the good people on this site a rare exotic flavour. I wouldn’t expect to meet anyone on the site “IRL” any more than I’d expect the characters on my TV to become sentient and walk onto my loungeroom floor.
In a nice way. 🙂
Can’t remember who’s still here from my first Mingle. Twang, Mike H, Beezer? I do remember walking round the block in Euston a couple of times before going in. Maybe because I was afraid of not fitting in, or maybe I was afraid that I would. Still not sure, 15 years later.
I remember you from Euston, or more specifically a dapper chap holding out his hand and introducing himself rather formally as “Underpants”.
Well one hates to use the honorific, you see
I remember the first mingle. I recall I’d arrived from a flight from Frankfurt and spent the first 15 minutes working out where to hide my suit bag.
I’m pretty certain Sid told me I really should listen to Dark Side of the Moon. I still haven’t….
Not sure how many I have met but there have been two “occasions”. The first was a mingle in June 2013 where Hannah was very kind to me and I chatted to someone whose name I forget but is not active in these parts any more. I kept getting bought drinks and had to leave early for fear of disgracing myself.
The second was in Auckland NZ, maybe 2015? in the splendid company of @Black-Celebration, @mikethep and @nickduvet. It was a very convivial occasion and much bollocks was talked. The latter two also came to a group piano concert I was performing in – was that the same trip?
Yes it was very enjoyable despite it being a Monday night in NZ’s biggest city – the embarrassment of having to leave a near-empty pub at 9pm because that’s what they do here; they just turf you out if there’s not enough punters. Oh the shaame…we found somewhere else though.
@nickduvet and I have met a few times – on the last occasion it was with @junior-wells and the lovely Ingrid. Another reason it was memorable was that it was my last social thing before the COVID lockdown. I think Junes was here for WOMAD which I think went ahead literally hours before all gatherings had to be cancelled.
At a 2011 mingle in Auckland, Nick and I met with Fraser Lewry and two other gents who claimed to be part of the Massive but I don’t think they were. They didn’t know each other either – very odd. So my tally is 5 – Nick, Junes, @Mousey, @mikethep and Fraser. 7 if you count the antelopers.
That covers most of my cohort too BC, Duvet 9that was a failry big night at that pub – BC and Ingrid aka mrs Wells going ciggie for ciggie all night. Thep – though that was in Brissie. Others are Mojo in Perth and GaryJohn in Melb who I see occasionally. @Vincent ? was it you or Vince Black ???? folkie fan, who I caught up with in Brunswick for a meal at a pub. And Allan Measures??? kindly left me some tennis tickets he couldn’t use.
Oh yeah also Shane Pacey who plays in a long running and rather good blues band – the Bondi Cigars.
@Junior-Wells I’m going to buy you a course in “Essential English Written Grammar”. Or maybe “How To Check That Your Posts Make Sense”. And given that we are in the same part of the world, maybe we’ll meet up someday…
I think there was one attempt at a micro mingle but it never happened.
Yes @Mousey I see what you mean. That was a big night last night and clearly not without its consequences.Alarmingly I reread that post and it made perfect sense at the time
😂😂😂
T’was I @junior-wells . The pub was the Brunswick Green and we saw a splendid gig by Michelle Nicolle & pals.
I’ve amazingly remembered the name of the person I spoke to at that 2013 mingle – itwas @phil-pirrip. Lovely chap. Whatever happened to him?
Sadly deceased https://theafterword.co.uk/phil-pirrip-rip/
Oh bloody hell I obviously missed that. R.I.P PP
Sadly Phil died a few years ago. I agree he was a lovely fella. I met up with him a couple of times, on one occasion when he was accompanied by his equally lovely wife.
He was a lovely gentle fella: met him at the Roundhouse for Nick Mason’s Sinkful of Saucepans.
Yes, it was 2015 – I had to go Auckland to activate my Oz permanent residency. Plus Junior in Brisbane and Melbourne. Black C and I meet regularly on the Scrabble field, but that probably doesn’t count – usually beats me too. That’s it – I’ve never met anybody else in Oz or in the UK, though I’ve been back there often enough.
One. Hannah – we had breakfast in Georgetown, Washington D.C.
I did indeed, as alluded above, go to quite a few mingles in bygone days.
Started at a London mingle at Euston and then a few more upstairs at that pub not far from Tottenham Court Road. One in Liverpool, one in Chester, one in Brum, possibly one in Lichfield, a couple in Glasgow and one in Newcastle with Colin-H. Quite a few Thames Valley mingles. Also met somebody (forget who it was and what the gig was – my bad) at a Jazz Café thing last year. Saw Hubes at the Joe Boyd/Brian Eno book launch thing and went for a bevy afterwards. Met KFD at a Daylight Music thing in Union Chapel some years back. Also met folks at some memorable Lexington gigs plus WIYE events at The Islington and a couple of other places. Chatted to El Hombre at a few London Primevals gigs.
“one in Newcastle with Colin-H”
Ah, so it *was* you then!
Whyaye whyaye, yaboogaman…
I think you may be mistaking me for FauxGeordie! We mingled briefly with him too, IIRC, although I think I arrived just as he was leaving.
I’ve met 3. I met one for the first time in 1982, another in the mid-1980s, not sure exactly which year, and the third in, I think 1991 or 1992.
Time machine?
Chiz, Hannah, JoLean, Doods, Rotherhithe Hack, Retro and others I’m sure. Also Phillip Pirrip, late of this parish who was a real gent.
Edit: I saw Hepworth talking about his latest book in Petworth recently and exchanged a few words but resisted the temptation to mention Word or this place.
Beezer too
Only fellow traveller I have met is @colin-h who I spent a very pleasant evening with in Belfast back in early 2020 (before the Great Inconvenience struck) at a Nine Below Zero gig followed by a few whiskeys in a nearby hostelry. Have definitely been at gigs in which there were afterworders present….
We must do it again, Bluemeister…
I do believe it was myself that suggested the first mingle. So I arrived at a pub very close to Chapel Street,The Angel,Islington. We’d agreed to have a copy of The Word magazine on show in order that we would find each other. I walked in and I think it may have been Carl who was there with a copy on the table. Twang(with his fold-up bike) arrived as did Hannah,Andrew Harrison,David Hepworth, Mark Ellen, Fraser and one other who’s name evades me(sorry). I think that was all,sorry if my memory has failed me(again!). It was a lovely evening.
I then went to a few more one at The Slaughtered Lamb(London boozer) and one at the other end of Chapel St(name of the pub evades me). I enjoyed them all.
It was me who arrived first. I also left earlier than I would have liked as I had a stinking cold.
The missing chap is Rosbif (who was using a different name at the time, but for personal reasons changed it).
David Hepworth didn’t go to that first mingle.
“Sixties” Mike Johnson is the missing chap.
There was also the guy, whose name I have forgotten who came in walked around, somehow failed to spot us and left. He did appear at subsequent sessions.
Well done @Carl,
You’ve got a better recall than I have.
Yes David Hepworth attended on later events.
I remember it well. They had a beer on called “Fairport”.
I went to all the London meet ups and enjoyed them very much, and have separately met others too. I had a lovely few days with Pencil, a terrific Cressida gig with Vulpes, many Americana good with Carl and Feedback and I are old friends and meet every couple of weeks for lunch life proper old geezers – same table, same grub, put the world to rights. Anyone who can get to Codecote is welcome to join us.
Pre-Word, I worked with Fraser at an Italian music streaming company in Old Street, 2001. Lovely bloke and very funny
italian music streaming company – do tell.
Just the one, and his plus one – @retropath2 and the lovely Mrs Retro came to meet me here in Suffolk in the summer of 2021. We enjoyed a lovely walk upstream along my favourite river, together with their two dogs.
I nearly met Forks, late of this parish, a year or two earlier, but an unexplained decision by my GP surgery thwarted that plan. Forks and I are still in regular online contact, along with @pencilsqueezer.
I had hoped to meet @nigelthebald last year when I was in Norwich he rather sensibly moved away about two weeks before my arrival probably just to avoid meeting me. I still hope to get to meet him one day.
When we met in Chester last year I took my plus one as Retro was bringing his, alas she was ill and couldn’t come. I’d hoped to meet her as she’s from the next town to me which is also D Hepworth’s home town. Mrs Rawlinson had met two before so she was happy to meet up again.
Hopefully that can be remedied this next year, @hubert-rawlinson . And also a return visit to East Angular. I have at least one festival in @nigelthebald territory lined up, so fingers crossed.
Indeed a must.
I met Mrs Retro quite by chance (with Mr Retro, of course) at a hotel in Cornwall in 2018 while I was walking the South West Coast Path with a mucker from work. As I recall, my mucker and Mrs Retro talked about dogs, leaving Retro and I to talk bollocks about folk rock or some such.
I liked Forks. I miss him. He is a Chartered Geographer. I think we’d have got on like a house on fire.
I imagine he hasn’t got over the shock of the BBC and NHS not being sold in 2011 as he confidently told us they would be, deal done etc.
Astonishingly, following a northern mingle at an Edinburgh Thai restaurant, he ended up in a bijou tenement in the New Town, with Ianess, where they grow bonsai trees and breed chorkies.
I haven’t been round these parts for quite a while – 3 years in fact. Lots of stuff stopped me/ occupied my time, but hopefully I will post a bit more now.
Over the years I have met several AWers. Pencilsqueezer several times (even got him up a Welsh mountain once!) and have been to gigs with Steve T and ElToro (Peter Bull), plus met up with Paul Waring at festivals. Have met Tiggerlion, Beany, Doods and Jo B as well.
It would be good to do more mingling.
We met, if briefly, at Nick Cave @ Symphony Hall last year, or the year before.
Cripes, I’ve met a lot of you. Certainly if you were in the gang early on and attended a London Mingle. Latterly the Thames Valley Annual Christmas Curry Club.
Let me see, Dogfacedboy, Malc,Mike H, Rigid Digit, Leedsboy, Jez, Niallb. And Hannah, Drakeygirl. Vince Packet, Disappointment Bob, Twang, Lunaman, Chiz. And so many more who’s handles I’ve mislaid.
I recall Rob B who was part of the early scene. We’d drink together a lot at the London Mingles. And Davebigpicture who I have a memory of waffling nonsense at one evening for a very long time. He was charming enough not to tell me to fuck off.
I remember a long conversation, although I don’t know what about but it was lovely to meet you Beezer.
You’re very kind and it was great to meet you. I think I was having a go at being a raconteur. It went so well i won a Perrier award and went on to a successful Hollywood career.
No, wait. I went back to work on Monday. Sorry, got confused.
Another two last night, as it happens, at Brum’s bijou Kitchen Garden Cafe, for My Darling Valentine, meeting @bogart and his wife, and also the erstwhile @artery . Which was nice.
Has anybody ever met Moose?